On March 29, 1404, in the early hours of the US-Israeli war with Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy’s Shajre Tayyiba Girls’ Elementary and Preschool in Minab was attacked.
According to Iranian state media, during the March 29 airstrikes across Iran, the Shajre Tayyiba School in Minab was targeted by a missile. The airstrikes, which began at around 10 a.m. Iranian time, coincided with the time when children in Iran would normally be getting ready to go to school, as Saturday is a workday in Iran. The missile strike immediately killed dozens of people inside the building.
Human rights organizations said that about 170 students and teachers were killed in the attack, while the Iranian Ministry of Education put the number of students present at 264. Most of them were girls aged 7 to 12. Shiva Rad, a representative of the Iranian Teachers’ Union Coordination Council, said the school had decided to close after the airstrikes began, but parents were unable to reach the school before the missile hit.
The school was targeted between 10 and 10:45 a.m., as classes were changing bells. The force of the explosion destroyed more than half of the school building, knocking down walls and causing the roof to collapse, trapping a number of people under the rubble. Images released showed the bodies of some of the victims, some of whose bodies were still buried under the rubble. The explosion destroyed at least half of the two-story school building.
According to reports provided to Middle East Eye by two Red Crescent aid workers and one of the victims’ parents, the second attack was a “double attack.” One aid worker said that after the first attack, the school principal had moved a group of students to the prayer room and called parents to come pick up their children; but the same location was targeted by a second attack shortly after, killing most of those who had taken refuge there. A parent confirmed this account, saying that after the school called about the first attack, in which her daughter had survived, she was on her way to school when the second attack occurred, killing her daughter. According to the mayor of Minab and the Iranian Ministry of Education, the school was targeted three times in total. On March 1, BBC Persian and some news agencies reported that a clinic in the same location had been hit, which some described as a “second attack on the same location” and others as a “supplementary attack.” The New York Times also confirmed that smoke was rising from two buildings at the scene. In the released videos, smoke can be seen coming from the windows of the school; A school whose painted walls were decorated with images of crayons, children and an apple. Experts also confirmed that other locations near the school were also targeted.
